Ketchikan: The Ferries To Gravina By DAVE KIFFER - While the "Bridge to Nowhere" steals all the headlines, Ketchikan's airport ferries continue to chug back and forth to the Ketchikan International Airport as they have a dozen or more times a day for the past 30 years.

For the record, although there is much talk of the bridge replacing a "five" or "seven" minute ferry ride, it actually only takes between two and three minutes most days for the airport ferry to traverse the quarter-mile stretch of Tongass Narrows. The "five" to "seven" minute figure applied years ago, when the airport ferry left from a ferry slip closer to the Alaska Marine Highway terminal. - More..
Thursday - November 17, 2005

Alaska: GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT TODAY - Alaska has one of the highest rates of tobacco use in the country and Alaska Natives smoke at a higher rate than non-Natives in the state. The 29th annual Great American Smokeout - which takes place on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 - gives Alaskans a chance to learn what it takes to quit smoking, said Wilbur Brown Jr., a health educator and tobacco policy coordinator for the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

Alaska: Gangs blamed for crime spike in Alaska - Violent crime in Alaska increased last year, continuing a steady upswing that began in the 1990s, according to FBI statistics. Law enforcement officials say the increase is largely due to aggravated assaults involving gangs in Anchorage and have said more gang-fighting initiatives are on the way.

The increase comes even though murder, rape and robbery are down for the state. The single category of aggravated assaults caused the overall rate, which is the total number of those four offenses, to go up, the study says. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

Alaska: M/V LeConte Delayed in Returning to Service - The M/V LeConte will be late returning to its schedule in northern Southeast Alaska due to a one-day delay in finishing up work on the vessel's annual overhaul in Ketchikan. The LeConte will begin sea trials with the U.S. Coast Guard for its re-certification on Thursday morning. Its exact time to return to service depends on the results of the sea trials, as well as tides in Wrangell Narrows.

"We cut the vessel's normal six-week overhaul to five weeks, and have not quite made that goal," said Capt. John Falvey, general manager of the Alaska Marine Highway System. "We have provided good coverage with our vessels and contract vessels of the LeConte's route, all except for Pelican, which had its last visit in early October. Our objective is to get the LeConte back in service tomorrow and to Pelican as soon as humanly possible." - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

National: Americans feeling increasingly betrayed in war on terror By PAUL KORING - George W. Bush's global anti-terror edifice of secret prisons, stripped rights and midnight renditions, erected in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, is now under concerted attack on multiple fronts from civil-rights groups, political opponents and even some in his own party.

Much of what the president built - the Patriot Act; secret detention centers in extralegal, if not illegal, twilight zones; "extraordinary renditions" (extraditing suspects across international boundaries without following normal court procedures) - rested on a deep foundation of trust. A shaken U.S. population was willing to accept that extraordinary measures and tactics were needed to safeguard the nation from a new and deadly enemy that didn't play by the old rules of war. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

International: The battle to rebuild By KEVIN SITES - It's a year ago that the Battle of Fallujah began, and I am, at the moment, riding in the back of an armored Humvee heading into that city, just as I did back then.

But I have no immediate epiphany, no moment of clarity, no linking of disparate information over time that suddenly helps it to all make sense. It all seems, well, normal.

Right down to the roadside-bomb threat. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Holiday Lights By Judee Mettler - Thursday Imagine a world of increasing communication By Rick Grams - Thursday To those who criticize our commanders By Walter Bolling - Thursday Dumpers are at it again! By Jerry Cegelske - Thursday T&H members Ketchikan area By Elroy C. Edenshaw Jr. - Thursday Overhaul? By Linda Burger - Thursday Question By Nyna Fleury - Thursday The bridge funding and how a hurricane impacts Ketchikan. By Rick Grams - Wednesday Welcome back By Tom LeCompte - Wednesday Schoenbar Middle School Miracle Needed By Jackie Williams - Tuesday Ketchikan Bridge Funding By MJ Cadle - Tuesday More of the Same at UAS By Robert D. Warner - Monday BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE By Pete Ellis - Monday President Bush's Veterans Day Speech By Alan Lidstone - Monday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan November 17, 2005: The Ketchikan City Council will hold a regular meeting in the City Council Chambers. Agenda & Information Packets (pdf) November Calendar Today's Forecast Current AK Weather Map City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements November 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S     01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30       Front Page Archives

National: Debate over torture far from clear-cut By JAMES ROSEN - Like so many complex issues tied to terrorism in the last four years, the current debate engulfing Washington over torture and interrogation procedures is really about everything but torture.

No one inside or outside the Bush administration is publicly claiming the right to commit clear acts of torture while questioning suspected terrorists - acts such as pulling out fingernails, burning detainees, starving them or holding a gun to their head.

Instead, Vice President Dick Cheney and others want to reserve the right for intelligence agents to use less extreme, though still disturbing, procedures. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

National: Global warming study forecasts more water shortages By CARL T. HALL - A warmer world is virtually certain to be much thirstier, too, according to a new study of the impact of global warming on water supplies.

Climate change experts led by Tim Barnett at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., found that at least one-sixth of the world's population, including much of the industrial world and a quarter of global economic output, appeared vulnerable to water shortages brought about by climate change.

Details appear today in the journal Nature, along with a separate study suggesting climate models are proving to be an effective way of analyzing and forecasting disruptions in water supplies brought on by global warming. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

National: New device IDs flu strains rapidly By BILL SCANLON - University of Colorado researchers have developed a tool that can identify flu strains within hours, rather than several days, and they are sharing it with the world in an effort to minimize deaths during a pandemic.

"We decided to make the announcement to make it available as widely as possible," said Kathy Rowlen, co-principal investigator for Flu Chip.

Tests on the new technology last month by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta showed that the Flu Chip can determine the genetic makeup of types and subtypes of the flu virus in less than 12 hours. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

National: Supermarket meat may not be as fresh as you think By LANCE GAY - Those cuts of red meat in the supermarket locker may not be as fresh as they look.

Under little-noted rulings over the last three years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed meat processors to use small amounts of carbon monoxide to maintain the red color in fresh meat sold in pre-assembled or "case-ready" packages.

Such packages are airtight containers assembled with the product at meat-packing plants and are not made to be reopened until they are sold to consumers. Some packages are marketed for up to 35 days, or 28 days in the case of ground beef. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005

National: Playing music can be good for your brain By CARRIE STURROCK - Stanford University research has found for the first time that musical training improves how the brain processes the spoken word, a finding that researchers say could lead to improving the reading ability of children who have dyslexia and other reading problems.

The study is the first to show that musical experience can help the brain improve its ability to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds that are key to understanding and using language. - More...
Thursday - November 17, 2005